Holland's Cobblestone Crafts and Hobbies store leaves downtown

Cory Morse | The Grand Rapids PressBoys among toys: Customers Jim Hartmann, left, and Clifford Mulcahey help set up inventory Monday inside the new location of Cobblestone Hobbies Inc., 367 East Lakewood Blvd., Holland Township. "I figured Bob (Harvey) needed some help, so we all chipped in," Hartmann said. "We're like family," Mulcahey explained. The store was previously located in downtown Holland.

HOLLAND TOWNSHIP — Bigger is better, say Bob and Rosemary Harvey, owners of Cobblestone Crafts and Hobbies, who are leaving downtown Holland after 38 years to double their store size.

The downtown Holland games and hobby business relocated to a 7,500-square-foot retail storefront at 367 E. Lakewood Blvd., which gives customers a lot more room for shopping, game playing and testing out new radio-controlled products.

“We’ve got the only indoor flying room in West Michigan where RC enthusiasts can test helicopters and some planes. We were also crammed for space for gaming events, but now we can do 100 people at our gaming events,” said Bob Harvey, who started as a salesman in the store in 1974 and bought the business five years later.

Cobblestone is one of the largest hobby stores in the Lakeshore area, offering everything from family board games and role playing games, to model trains, tons of plastic models, hobby crafts, sports cards, comic books and art supplies.

Bob Harvey says the 4,000 customers he has on his store database are like a family. He had about 50 people volunteer to help with the move.

“We just wanted to help get them up and running as quick as we could so we could enjoy the new store,” said Cobblestone regular Cliff Mulcahey, 56, who thought the move from downtown to a bigger location was a good idea.

“Cobblestone’s been a fixture in downtown as long as I can remember but you got to keep progressing in retails,” he said.

Mulcahey likes shopping there because he can take an RC plane or truck home right away and try it out.

“You can’t do that with online shopping,” he said.

The business, which moved from 210 Central Ave., gets its “cobblestone” name from its original location on Eighth Street in downtown Holland, which had a cobblestone sidewalk in front of the building.

“Beside the need for more space, the city’s going to tear up Central Avenue this summer and road work is terrible for business. And I know, I’ve been in business downtown for three major road constructions,” Harvey said.

Another advantage of the move is the Harveys will own the new building, while they leased their previous location.